Feversong (Fever #9)(130)

I nodded, knowing I had so little time left it was doubtful anyone would claim anything further from me.

When he brought Aoibheal inside, her eyes narrowed. “I can’t help you,” she said instantly.

“I’m not asking you to,” I told the woman whose mere existence had caused every single problem I’d had, through no fault of her own but as a pawn on a vast chessboard, in a game played by vast beings. It wasn’t as if there was anything she could do to save us anyway. I would be dead soon, with no True Magic to require advice about. “I’m going to take you somewhere.”

“Where?” she demanded.

I glanced at the DEG and the transition was seamless. Suddenly the three of us stood beneath the triple canopy of a tropical rain forest, and I was hearing the DEG’s voice in my head, telling me what to say.

“The king protected your world,” I told her. “Though your clan is long dead, you will find your planet the same.”

She stared blankly at me, then past my shoulder, then at me again. “My world still exists? I’m home? But how do you know any of this? How did you even know where to find it?”

That was a tricky one. I waited for the DEG to say something and he didn’t so I said, “The Sinsar Dubh knew about it. It was in the king’s memories.”

She spun in a slow circle, absorbing her surroundings with faint wonder.

I relayed the DEG’s next words: “I’m going to make you mortal so you may live and die as you’ve always wished. You will not perish with the Earth.”

She whirled back to me. “Why would you do that? I left you and your world to die.”

I stared into her vaguely puzzled, sad eyes and these words were my own: “There was nothing you could have done to save us. No more than I.”

The DEG whispered in my brain the keywords to sort through my mental files so I could find the spell to transform her. Along with his words came a rush of dark power, and I whizzed through the tabs so quickly it pissed me off that he hadn’t been around a few weeks ago when I really could have used this kind of boost.

Then another flood of raw, unfocused energy exploded inside me as he boosted me further since I could no longer tap into the earth.

I murmured the words of an ancient curse used to turn a Fae human as punishment by the queen. Aoibheal stiffened and hissed, doubling over as she transformed. Then I felt another jolt of magic flow through me from the DEG, and her hair and skin began to darken to a lovely shade of brown. Glossy dark curls tumbled to her waist. Her clothing shimmered, shifted, and flowed into a brilliantly colored tunic.

When finally she straightened, she inclined her head in an imperious nod, then with her bird on her shoulder turned and walked slowly, stiffly, into the forest.

“Awk! Fly now!” the bird squawked.

She paused and glanced up at it. With a ghost of a smile, the concubine removed her shoes and curled her bare toes into the leaves and soil. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

Then she shook herself, gathered her skirts and dashed off into the lush, dense wood.

The brilliant squawking bird soared into the air, taking flight above her.

We stood, watching, until they’d both vanished.

Abruptly, I was back at BB&B, alone.

I sank down onto the sofa and sighed.

The iconic love affair was truly, irrevocably, over.

The concubine was finally all she’d ever wanted to be: mortal. She would die.

The king would go on.

With a heart that was heavy for too many reasons to count, I stretched out on the Chesterfield and waited for Barrons to come home.



I woke to his hands on me, sliding up beneath my shirt, closing on my breasts, and lust and need and grief exploded inside me. We shed our clothing urgently, kissing so deeply we couldn’t breathe, and I knew a thing about breath—you didn’t need it when you had this kind of love.

And you didn’t want it if you lost this kind of love.

Once, what seemed another lifetime ago, I’d decided to destroy the world because I’d lost this man. I hadn’t made that decision when I’d lost my sister.

And now I was going to lose him again.

I didn’t want to keep breathing without him. I couldn’t see myself transferring what True Magic remained to another Fae, going off world with my sister and parents and leaving him to die without me. Assuming I tried, I knew I’d never fall in love again. Where was I going to find another man like Jericho Barrons? He was a singularity. And every man I met would only end up getting compared to what I’d loved and lost and, no, I didn’t believe one day I’d “get over him.” There are some people you never get over.

I was unable to make myself want to live without Barrons. I wasn’t embracing death. I didn’t want to die. But if my choices were living without him for a long time or living with him for every minute I could, however brief, there was no contest.

If there was an afterlife, I was taking my chance to go on with him. Heaven or Hell. I would live with this man and, by God, I would die with him, too.

“It’s possible,” he said, moving inside me, “that I won’t die right away. It’s possible I could go off world with you and live until I died that first and last time. Then simply not be able to be reborn. We might have a natural life span together.”

“Do you know that for certain?” I gasped as he thrust deep.